VPS & PSNH 2020

QUARTERLY QUOTE
Why not spend time on art: painting, sculpting, charcoal, pastel, oils? Are words or numbers more important than images? Who decides this? Does algebra move you to tears? Can plural possessives express the feelings in your heart? If you don’t learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!
Laurie Halse Anderson

The Winter Solstice has signaled a return to longer days, with more hours of light for painting;
We have our Members’ Exhibition opening in a matter of days,
Regional hubs are continuing to thrive;
And we have a new Vice President.
Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:
Thursday, January 16, 2020, 5-6:30pm: Reception for the Members’ Exhibition of the VPS with the Pastel Society of NH, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, 4th floor main hallway.

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE
In the last quarter, 4 of 6 hubs have met once, and one hub has met twice. Many hubs are using a challenge-prompt, asking members to do, in the intervening time, an abstract painting, or painting a bold landscape on a black surface, or painting in color from a black and white reference. Many hubs are taking advantage of local venues to exhibit their pastels. As for using hub money, one hub paid a workshop presenter to come to them, and another hub used their money for purchasing tickets to MASSMoCA and The Clark, for a visit in early January.

VPS EXHIBITIONS
Our Members’ Exhibition (ME) for 2020 features something new: Susannah Colby, our Exhibitions Co-Chair, has coordinated this year’s exhibition with the Pastel Society of New Hampshire to make a really big show. We will be having about 120 works from 60 artists lining the expansive hallway in a large institution where hundreds of people will walk through to view them every month. As in our last ME, we will be awarding prizes in five genres (landscape, waterscape, still life, figurative, and abstract) and in five elements of composition (color, value, line, shape, and texture). Plus, the same two new categories will be kept: a Judge’s Choice and the People’s Choice. The judge this year, recommended by PSNH, will be Mary Eselin, a professional artist with gallery representation in several VT and NH galleries. Our goal for the ME has been to showcase the range of experience and diversity of pastel painting in our VPS, so the awards have tried to reflect that. Come see our VPS members’ works along with our neighbor pastel society’s paintings. You won’t be disappointed.

Our Juried Show will be in November 2020 at the Southern Vermont Arts Center.

VPS WORKSHOPS
Alain Picard will offer a combination of workshops in East Montpelier, VT: The Painterly Landscape, August 17-19, 2020 and The Painterly Portrait, August 20-21, 2020. Artists can sign up for one or both. Details will follow in February.

Lyn Asselta will offer a workshop October 2-4, 2020, at the Taraden Art Barn in North Bennington. Stay alert for details coming to you near the end of March.

BOARD NEWS
As you may recall, our board has 10 members who serve 2 year staggered terms. Every year, therefore, 5 members’ terms are up, and we hold elections, usually at the Annual Membership Meeting. This past November, at that meeting, Grace Cothalis, her Vice Presidential term up, wanted to step down, and she ran for one of the Member-at-Large positions, leaving the VP spot vacant. As we had no candidates to fill that position, we asked our hubs for volunteers. Mark Grasso, of VPS: SouthWest offered his candidacy, and he was elected in an e-mail meeting vote on December 19, 2019.
We still need a Secretary to record the minutes of the two board meetings and one annual membership meeting that occur every year. Please let us know if you want to serve the VPS by being on the board as our Secretary.

Members Gallery
As a reminder, if you want your image changed in the VPS Website Gallery, please use this link.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE VPS!
We are who we are from the devoted support that you all give to our organization. Keep it coming, as you keep on mark-making in pastel!

Matt Peake
VPS President

QUARTERLY QUOTE

“I cringe when someone refers to pastels as chalk but it really grates when people call them crayons, as in ‘I just can’t believe you can do that with crayons!’ Are they referring to those waxy things children use?”

Amanda McLean

Newsletter Topics:

– The leaves are beginning to turn into inspiring autumn reds, oranges, and yellows.

– We have just had two workshops and two exhibitions.

– Regional hubs are very active.

– Our members’ meeting is coming up soon!

Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday, October 26, 2019, 1- 3pm: VPS Board Meeting, Sherburne Library, Killington, VT

Sunday, November 10, 2019, 1- 4pm: Annual VPS Members’ Meeting, Sherburne Library, Killington, VT

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE

Two of our regional hubs continue to meet regularly, with VPS MidState meeting monthly and VPS SouthEast getting together quarterly. Our other hubs (VPS Central, VPS Champlain, VPS SouthWest) are getting together for special activities like paint outs and workshops. VPS UpperValley just met to decide on a new Point Person, Kate Cone. Earlier in the year VPS Champlain chose a new Point Person as well, Lisa Kent. Thank you Kate and Lisa!

VPS EXHIBITIONS

Our Members’ Exhibition (ME) just closed at the TW Wood Gallery in Montpelier, VT. Thanks to the many members who responded to our earlier survey, we added and modified the categories for this year’s awards. We awarded prizes in five genres (landscape, waterscape, still life, figurative, and abstract) and in the elements of composition (color, value, line, shape, and texture). Two new categories were introduced: a Judge’s Choice and a People’s Choice. Our goal for the ME has been to showcase the range of experience and diversity of pastel painting in our VPS, so the awards were meant to reflect that. As such, our hope was that anyone with 5 months to 5 decades of pastel painting experience should feel welcome to submit a painting and have their love of pastels celebrated by viewers and eyed by our judge, Mickey Myers, Executive Director of the Bryan Memorial Gallery. We hung over 40 paintings, the reception was packed with VPS members and town art lovers, and VPS Central rocked with the reception they provided! Look at the website and social media for all the details.

VPS WORKSHOPS

Richard McKinley Workshop, July 29-August 2, 2019. Here’s what a participant said: “The Richard McKinley plein air workshop was the best yet. Seventeen students, many new out-of-state members, enjoyed painting in Central Vermont’s August beauty, benefiting from Richard’s expertise and generosity with his time and knowledge. We bonded well and started a Facebook workshop members’ page, where we post images of our work and solicit critiques.”

Workshop on September 21-23, 2019, with Jacob Aguiar, as reviewed by attendees, “was quite a success both financially and as a learning experience.  It seemed everyone was pleased with Jacob’s workshop and the weather was beautiful so we had the opportunity, if we wanted, to do plein air.”

BOARD NEWS

We will be having our fall meeting on Saturday, October 26, 2019, from 1-3pm in the Sherburne Library in Killington, VT, which is about 1-1.5 hours from all corners of the state. In addition to reviewing upcoming exhibitions and workshops, we will be planning the Annual Members’ Meeting.

As a reminder, if you want your image changed in the VPS Website Gallery, please use this link: https://vermontpastelsociety.com/policies-procedures/.

ANNUAL VPS MEMBERS’ MEETING

On Sunday, November 10, 2019, from 1-4pm in the Sherburne Library in Killington, VT we will have our Annual VPS Members’ Meeting. The format will include a business portion from1- 2:30 pm to elect five new board members, as well as deal with other items. This will be followed by an interactive presentation by VPS members on abstract pastel painting and the many benefits that painting abstractly can have on your ongoing pastel painting. This promises to be great, so mark your calendars today and save the date!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE VPS!

We are who we are from the indefatigable support that you all give to our organization. Keep it coming, as you keep on pastel-painting!

Matt Peake, VPS President

QUARTERLY QUOTE
“I enjoy painting, but the most fun for me is thinking about what I want to do. Mostly it’s fiddling with an array of objects until they form a pleasing composition. I usually let out an audible ‘wow’ when I get to the place I want to be.”
Brennie Brackett

It’s summer and the VPS is sizzling;
We have two workshops scheduled, and as far as exhibitions, we have one done and one to come;
Regional hubs are doing lots of things;
And we’re only half way thru the year!

Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 17-July 7, 2019: Juried Show, White River Craft Center, Randolph, VT
July 29-August 2, 2019: Richard McKinley Workshop, 4 Corners School House, East Montpelier, VT
September 2019: Members’ Exhibition, TW Wood Gallery, Montpelier, VT
September 21-23, 2019: Jacob Aguiar Workshop, Taraden, 183 Park Street, North Bennington, VT

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE
Our regional hubs continue to meet regularly, with VPS:SouthEast, VPS:MidState, VPS:Champlain, and VPS: SouthWest being the most active ones, at least as far as being reported through Hub Happenings. If other hubs are doing things, please let Judy Albright know so she can share your activities on Hub Happenings with the whole membership. Ideas and opportunities your hub finds interesting offer options to other hubs as well!

Remember that one of the responsibilities given to hubs is to help with exhibitions when the venue of the Juried Show or Members’ Exhibition is closest to their hub’s central city or cities. Just to remind everyone, they are:

Burlington/St Albans for VPS: Champlain,
Montpelier for VPS: Central,
White River Junction for VPS: Upper Valley,
Brattleboro for VPS: SouthEast,
Middlebury/Rutland for VPS: MidState, and
Bennington/Manchester for VPS: SouthWest

Those duties include receiving the pastels for the show, hanging the show, hosting the reception, providing images of the reception for social media, and being present at take down for artists picking up paintings. The Point Person for the hub will be informed a couple months ahead of time that your hub will be hosting the show. As a hub member, even though you do not happen to have a painting in the show, it is still part of your hub’s job to help with the show, so please make yourself available to your hub’s Point Person for any or all of the tasks asked of you.

VPS EXHIBITIONS
Our Juried Show will hang until Sunday, July 7 at the White River Craft Center, in Randolph, VT. We used an on-line submission platform, Online Juried Shows (OJS), for our Juried Show this year to eliminate some of the many hours of work it takes to put on such a show. Our jurors, Jacob Aguiar and Christine Ivers viewed over 90 paintings and had to narrow their selection down to 25 works to hang in the intimate exhibition space. Special thanks go out to Laura Winn Kane for coming on board as Exhibitions Co-Chair with Susannah Colby to help make this year’s Juried Show a reality. And a hearty thank you should be given to Katrina Thorstensen for organizing the reception for VPS: Upper Valley! It was a very festive, well-attended event, with a colorful and humorous judge, David Frances, picking out the 5 prize-winners from the twenty five excellent and deserving paintings.

Our Members’ Exhibition (ME) is coming soon, during the month of September, at the TW Wood Gallery in Montpelier, VT. Thanks to the many members who responded to our survey, we have added and modified the categories for this year’s awards. Our goal for the ME has been to showcase the range of experience and diversity of pastel painting in our VPS, so the awards are meant to reflect that. As such, anyone with 5 months to 5 decades of pastel painting experience should feel welcome to submit a painting or two (depending on space) and have their love of pastels celebrated by viewers and eyed by our judge, Mickey Myers, Executive Director of the Bryan Memorial Gallery. So stay alert for all the details in an upcoming email. And speaking of hubs, please note that VPS: Central will be the host hub for the 2019 ME!

VPS WORKSHOPS
The Richard McKinley Workshop, July 29-August 2, 2019 has three (3) openings. Any one interested in learning from this excellent teacher, can email Joyce Kahn at [email protected]

The workshop for September 21-23, 2019, with Jacob Aguiar at Taraden, 183 Park Street, North Bennington, VT, is full, but new names can be added to a waiting list should current registrants need to drop out. Contact Linda Masten at [email protected]

BOARD NEWS
As a reminder, if you want your image changed in the VPS Website Gallery, please use this link: http: https://vermontpastelsociety.com/policies-procedures/.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE VPS!
We are who we are from the effort, energy, and enthusiasm that you all give to our organization. Keep it coming, as you keep on pastel-painting!

Matt Peake, VPS President

QUARTERLY QUOTE
Even in certain kinds of impressionism, one can more or less imply perspective, but when you paint realistically, perspective has to be perfect.
Daniel E. Greene

Spring is here and the VPS has, and not so quietly, been springing to life;

We have two workshops scheduled and one exhibition almost ready to hang;
Regional hubs are continuing to thrive;
And, as has been said before, it can only get better!
Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 17-July 6, 2019: Juried Show, White River Craft Center,
Randolph, VT
July 29-August 2, 2019: Richard McKinley Workshop, 4
Corners School House, East Montpelier, VT
September 2019: Members’ Exhibition, TWWood Gallery,
Montpelier, VT
September 21,22 and 23, 2019: Jacob Aguiar Workshop,
Taraden, 183 Park Street, North Bennington, VT

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE
Our regional hubs continue to meet regularly, with VPS:SouthEast, VPS:MidState, and VPS:Champlain being the most active ones, at least as far as being reported through Hub Happenings. If other hubs are doing things, please let Judy Albright know so she can share your activities on Hub Happenings with the whole membership. Ideas and
opportunities your hub finds interesting offer options to other hubs as well!

Remember that VPS now has allocated money for hubs to use ($100 promised to each hub, with an additional $5 per member) for hubs to get speakers, attend museums, purchase materials needed, etc., to broaden the range of activities they participate in. Procedures to follow to get reimbursed have been given to the hub point people. So let us know what you are doing with the money!

VPS EXHIBTIONS
Our Juried Show is scheduled for hanging on May 11, 2019  at the White River Craft Center, Randolph, VT. We used an on-line submission platform, Online Juried Shows (OJS), for our Juried Show this year to eliminate some of the many hours of work it takes to put on such a show. As of midnight, March 31, the deadline for entries, VPS artists have submitted over 70 entries. The jurors go to work from April 1-7, choosing the best 20-25 paintings submitted. Special thanks to Laura Winn Kane for coming on board as Exhibitions Co-Chair with Susannah Colby to help make this year’s Juried Show a reality. And more thanks—in advance—to VPS: Upper Valley for hosting the
2019 VPS Juried Show!

VPS WORKSHOPS
The Richard McKinley Workshop, July 29- August 2, 2019 is now full, with18 participants and three on the waiting list. 
Thank you to Joyce Kahn for successfully promoting and filling this workshop!

The workshop for September 21-23, 2019, with Jacob Aguiar, is also full, but new names can be put on a waiting list should current registrants need to drop out. Anyone who signed up by March 31 got into the workshop and will be getting an email
soon with payment details. Please note that the workshop has been changed to a new location, Taraden, 183 Park Street, North Bennington, VT.

Thanks to Linda Masten or Shelli DuBoff for their stewardship in securing a great instructor and in making this workshop happen for the VPS.

BOARD NEWS
Board members are working, as we go to press, on the VPS Workshop Scholarship program that was approved by the board and membership last year. Please check the VPS website for details!

As a reminder, if you want your image changed in the VPS Website Gallery, please use this link: https://vermontpastelsociety.com/policies-procedures/ .

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE VPS!
We are who we are from the line, shape, color and texture that you all give to our organization. Keep it coming, as you keep on art-making!

Matt Peake VPS President

QUARTERLY QUOTE
Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.
Edgar Degas

Our new year has just begun;
We have two workshops scheduled and two exhibitions in the works; Regional hubs now have some VPS money to help enrich their activities.
And it can only get better!

Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:
May-June, 2019: Juried Show, White River Craft Center, Randolph, VT
July 29-August 2, 2019: Richard McKinley Workshop E. Montpelier, VT
September 2019: Members’ Exhibition, T W Wood Gallery, Montpelier, VT
September 14-15, 2019: Jacob Aguiar Workshop, Bennington, VT

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE
It was decided at the board meeting in October, and presented at the annual
membership meeting in November, to give money to each hub, in the form of a
pledged amount per year. There will be an equal amount of $100 promised to each
hub, with an additional $5 per member to allow hubs to get speakers, attend
museums, purchase materials needed, etc., to broaden the range of activities they
participate in. Procedures to follow to get reimbursed will be given to the hub point
people in the coming month. So let us know what you are doing with the money!

VPS EXHIBTIONS
Our annual Members’ Exhibition will be at the T W Wood Gallery in September and
our Juried Show is scheduled for spring (May-June) at the White River Craft
Center, Randolph, VT. One new item of interest was discussed at the Membership
Meeting in November: the VPS will be using an on-line submission platform
(perhaps OnlineJuriedShows.com) for our Juried Show to eliminate some of the
many hours of work it takes Susannah to put on such a show. That means that there
will be an entry fee required to submit your pastel(s) to be juried into the VPS Juried
Show (not for the Members’ Exhibition). The VPS will still obtain its own jurors, will
still have the show in a real venue, and will still have a judge come to the venue to
select award-winners. So only the entry process has changed.

VPS WORKSHOPS
An initial announcement has gone out for the Richard McKinley workshop, July 29-
August 2, 2019 requesting interested participants to enter their name into a lottery,
as the expected interest in this workshop will be great. As this will be a multipronged
process, keep an eye out for a Constant Contact detailing the next steps.
Linda Masten is organizing a workshop for September 14-15, 2019, with Jacob
Aguiar. Details for this exciting event will be forthcoming.
Also, see Board News below for more workshop news!

BOARD NEWS
Cindy Griffith is partnering with John Landy (VPS: Central) as VPS Website comanagers.  Together they have implemented a new on-line system for paying
membership dues, bringing the VPS into the 21st century. You can enter your
membership information on line, then use your credit card/debit card or PayPal
account, if you have one, to pay. Please be assured, that VPS will not keep any
personal or credit/debit card info on the website. Maggie, as membership secretary,
will be relieved of much paper work, so please use this method, if you can, for
paying your dues.

Additionally, if you want your image changed in the VPS Website Gallery, please use
this link: https://vermontpastelsociety.com/policies-procedures/

We have a new board member, Shelli DuBoff, (VPS: SouthWest) as member-at-large.
She will be taking over the DVD lending library duties from Grace Cothalis, to allow
Grace to devote herself to assisting VPS members in organizing workshops

And speaking of workshops, the VPS board also approved money for workshop
scholarships. Joyce Kahn, the other member-at-large, will be the head of workshop
scholarships, and she, Grace Greene, and other VPS members will be letting us know
in the coming months the details of applying for one and the process for deciding on
who will be awarded them and the amounts to be awarded. So please apply if you
want to attend a workshop, but find it difficult to manage financially.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE VPS!
We are who we are from the imagination, vision, and dedication that you all give to
our organization. Keep it coming, as you keep on art-making!

Matt Peake
VPS President